release date: Jan. 22, 1982
format: vinyl (CALS 130) / digital
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,68]
producer: Chris Gilbey & Bob Clearmountain
label: Carrere Records - nationality: Australia
Track highlights: 1. "For a Moment We're Strangers" (4 / 5) - 3. "The Unguarded Moment" (4,5 / 5) (live) - 6. "Is This Where You Live" - *8. "Tear It All Away" - 9. "Don't Open the Door to Strangers"
Studio album debut by Australian jangle pop band The Church consisting of lead vocalist and bassist Steve Kilbey, lead guitarist Peter Koppes, guitarist Marty Willson-Piper (6 & 12 strings acoustic and el-guitar) and with Nick Ward on drums. On the back of the sleeve Ward has been exchanged in the credit list by new drummer Richard Ploog, who plays on three of the songs but Ward left the band before the album was finished. This is the '82 European version of the debut, which originally had the title Of Skins and Heart (Apr. '81) released by EMI / Parlophone and only for the Australian market. The European issue is almost identical with only one track differing from the Australian edition: track #8. has been exchanged for "Fighter Pilot...Korean War" on the original.
I purchased the vinyl album back in '82, and it was the only version I knew of until around 2012, when I came to know of the original. Upon listening to the "Fighter pilot..." track, I only think the decision of an exchange seems appropriate, when the album had an international release. "Tear It All Away" falls in the better half of the tracks and appears more in harmony with the current jangle pop style compared to the exchanged track.
Musically, this is labelled new wave - a soft end less aggressive version, which corresponds with other bands of the late 70s to early 80s. This isn't music that relates to the punk rock, as other new wave bands, but the style is with reference to and inspiration from folk rock, as soft rock of the 60s and perhaps with some inspiration from British band The Soft Boys, a band who had listened to The Doors, Buffalo Springfield, The Kinks, and The Byrds.
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| cover from the debut album Of Skins and Heart, (1981) |
